Sister Light and Brother Dark
by entity9silvergen
Summary: Ten years after the death of Tony Stark, his daughter finds an old journal of his but it's not what she expects. This is the journal of someone named Ultron whose last name arises many questions and threatens to tear Morgan's life apart. [Contains Endgame Spoilers. Requested oneshot. Slash. Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel]


**Author's Note:** This is a oneshot requested by The Other Jet Engine. I normally don't write this kind of thing, my prompt was limited, and the requester didn't want to read it before it went up so I don't know how it turned out but I hope you guys enjoy. Not my best work, not really proud of it. Please let me know what you think or if anything needs any changing.

* * *

**Year 2033 **(10 Years Later)

New York was a beautiful city. It was all Morgan had ever known. Well, almost. She had spent her youngest years living out in the forest with her father and her mother but those times had long since faded from the mind of the daughter of the armored Avenger. Just like fifteen year old, nearly all of Morgan's early memories were long gone but she'd be damned if she didn't try to cling to them with all her heart.

Still, she didn't miss the forest much. Morgan loved New York. Supposedly it had once been an overpopulated, polluted city but Morgan couldn't picture her home like that. Sure there were a lot of people but polluted? Not in a million years. After the Decimation before she was born, people had begun to neglect the use of older machinery and that had continued long after everyone had come back.

Sitting in a classroom as she was, Morgan couldn't breathe the fresh air of the city but that didn't stop her from gazing out at the sky, wishing she was soaring high above the rooftops just as she had seen her father doing so many times in those old news videos Happy showed her sometimes. She let out a long sigh. _I wish Dad was still here… Maybe he'd take me flying._

"Morgan," someone hissed and the young Stark turned her attention back to the class. She was in history at the moment. More specifically, the class was in the midst of their weekly current events study. An old TV screen had been wheeled up to the front of the class, displaying the live news feed.

_"Today the Avengers stopped yet another Kree attack on the UN summit,"_ the news reporter was saying. _"The United Nations Headquarters in New York was completely leveled. Captain Marvel still was nowhere to be seen but five Avengers lead by Captain America managed to protect all the ambassadors and drive off the Kree strike team. Everyone got out with minimal injuries."_

Morgan folded her hands to rest under her nose as she watched the footage of the attack. Kree attacks had been common over the past few years. The Guardians of the Galaxy faced Yon-Rogg's fleet from time to time and usually one but aliens still slipped through Earth's defenses pretty frequently. Morgan didn't know why they had such an interest in the Earth, something to do with revenge she heard, but seeing the green armored aliens back on Earth made her blood boil. Not the Kree specifically, she had no grudge against them, but rather their presence.

On the screen, an undamaged Kree battleship was descending above the UN Headquarters, the force from the engines making the flags outside flap as if a sudden wind had come by. Weapons began extending from the ship, taking aim at the building.

Morgan heard some people around her gasp and tense. Everyone knew one shot from a Kree cannon could take out any building, even the UN Headquarters. The Kree didn't get the chance to fire. Just as the cannons began to glow to fire, a flat object flew through the air, flashing in the sunlight, and embedded itself in the cannon. After a split second, Morgan recognized it as Captain America's shield. Another second passed and the cannon was suddenly exploding, unable to release the energy it had built up.

A figure flew through the sky. Fifteen years ago anyone would have called the man Falcon but no one would make that mistake ever again. A dark blue streak shot towards the ship and grabbed the shield from its resting place and tossed something at the Kree battleship.

_"Surprise!" _a voice boomed through the classroom's speakers as Antman appeared on the screen, growing even taller than the UN building as he wrapped his arms around the ship. He dug his heels into the ground and leaned forward, forcing the ship to take a nosedive into the ground. Another boom sounded as a third figure arrived on the battlefield and a green man joined the red and blue clad heroes. The Hulk had arrived on the scene.

Tearing open the hull of the ship, the Hulk pulled the pilot out of the cockpit while Antman began swiping at the Kree soldiers flying around. Captain America joined him, extending his Falcon wings as he slammed into his various foes.

Hulk seemed to be talking to the pilot. After a few sentences were exchanged, his eyes widened and he jammed a finger into the comm in his ear. _"Panther, Rescue, hurry it up! This is another suicide bombing ship. The reactor's unstable. It's going to explode!"_

Morgan's heart sank when she heard the Hulk's shout. Not because of his message. It was who was receiving it. _Mom… guess she's not going to be home when I get back from school…_ Morgan let out another sigh though she didn't really mind. Whenever her mom wasn't around, she got to spend the day with Happy Hogan which was always fun.

The sound of the school bell ringing rang through the classroom and the halls outside. Most of the class jumped up immediately, ignoring the teacher's calls for them to sit back down. The more rambunctious students were out the door, quickly followed by a few of the quieter kids who didn't want to watch the news footage of the UN building being destroyed. Morgan rose a bit slower and took a moment to shove all the supplies on her desk into her backpack before taking off without even waving goodbye to her teacher. She had somewhere she needed to be.

Once she hit the halls, she broke into a run out to the parking lot where a familiar silver car was waiting for her.

* * *

"Sorry we couldn't do something more fun today," Happy was saying as he pulled his car into a parking lot, "but I've got a conference call at four that I can't miss."

Morgan glanced over at the driver and smiled. "Don't worry about it, Uncle Happy. I love visiting Dad's old storage lockers."

Happy chuckled. "At least one of us does. I used to hate visiting my old man's locker. Plus, managing all the Avengers trash for so many years made me lose all hope of ever gaining a good relationship with them."

Morgan laughed as Happy pulled up to one of the garage units in the lot. Jumping out of the passenger seat, Morgan realized they had never been to this lot before. This one was smaller than the ones they usually visited. Being rich and all, Tony Stark didn't usually stoop to anything less than the best.

Happy seemed to notice her confusion. "I found the key and address to this one the other day when poking around some of your dad's old safes. He had about a million locks on that thing. I thought there would be some kind of crazy weapon in there but turns out there are just a ton of journals in there and some scrap metal."

"Journals?" Morgan questioned.

Happy nodded and tossed her the keys from where he sat in the driver's seat of his car. "Yeah. You're Dad always kept them to scribble out ideas when he got them. There may be a few personal ones in there, who knows?"

Morgan smiled as she fingered the key in her hand. The sound of a phone sounded and Happy answered it, waving for Morgan to go on ahead. Jamming the key into the lock, Morgan twisted it and pulled the garage door open. She braced slightly, expecting her dad's locker to have some kind of weaponized defenses but nothing flew out other than a cloud of dust. She coughed a bit and waved her hands, circulating the air a bit.

Right off the bat, the girl noticed the scrap Happy had mentioned but most of the locker was filled with boxes stacked up high, almost to the ceiling. Morgan froze and stared up at them. _It's going to take me forever to go through all these…_

Tackling the problem logically as all Starks did, Morgan grabbed a couple of boxes to take with her when she left to look at when she got home. She recognized a lot of the boxes as the kind her mother's favorite brand of shoes came in. Morgan smiled, amused. _Guess Dad got tired of Mom's boxes taking up all the closest space._

Morgan glanced back at Happy. In the driver's seat, he was waving his hands wildly, clearly deeply invested in his call. Morgan set the boxes down beside the tire and turned back to the locker to find something to keep her occupied while she waited for Happy to finish his call and join her.

Morgan poked around a bit, trying to find something to catch her interest. Opening some of the boxes, she found them filled with journals just as Happy had said. Flipping through one, she found the scattered thoughts and plans for the Avengers' quinjet. _Very early plans._ She smiled to herself and sat down, finding herself pulled into the calculations and scribbles on the faded pages.

* * *

That night, Morgan lay in her bed with the boxes on the foot of the bed beside her. On the sheet before her, one of the dusty journals was cracked open. She flipped through the pages one by one, soaking in every detail scrawled on the pages, until she reached the final page. Ignoring the time displayed on her bedside clock, she put the notebook back into the box and drew another.

Glancing at the front cover then the back, Morgan immediately realized this one was different from the rest. Opening to a random page, she saw a familiar page setup. Date on top, lines and lines of slow writing, this was a diary. Or a log. Or a journal. Whatever it was that boys called the place they kept all their thoughts and feelings without sounding too girly.

Morgan sat up, an excited grin on her face. In all the notebooks she had found, none had been anything like this. Just scribbles of ideas, nothing personal. Unable to wait any longer, she opened the book and read the first page.

Like most lined journals, the first page had the inside of the cover on the left and a blank page on the right before the lines began. There were some words written on the blank page in messy handwriting that Morgan didn't recognize. At first glance, it looked childish and she thought it may have been a diary from her father's younger years. That was until she read the words that the crooked letters formed.

_"Property of Ultron Stark-Rogers. 2015 Journal. Stay out!"_

Morgan blinked, staring at the page. She ran her fingers over the pencil marks as she tried to fathom those nine words. _Stark-Rogers… Rogers… That sounds familiar. Maybe Dad had a cousin or something with that name? But who names their kid Ultron?_

"Mom!" Morgan called, knowing her mother was downstairs in the living room. Despite her work with the Avengers as Rescue, she almost always was at home every night in the living room looking over old pictures of Tony. Ten years had passed yet Pepper still grieved each and every night.

"What is it, sweetie?" Pepper called from the other room. "You should be asleep. It's late."

"It's a weekend," Morgan responded. "Who was Ultron?"

There was a moment of silence. "I think he was that robot your dad made. I'm not really sure what happened with it but I think it had something to do with what happened in Sokovia. You know, when the city was lifted into the sky… God, that had to be almost twenty years ago now."

Morgan made a sound of acknowledgement and flipped the page of the journal. At the time, she had been unable to contain her excitement. She was even shaking a bit, that's how much this intrigue thrilled her. Later, she would deny ever feeling that way.

"_Entry 1,"_ the first page read. _"May 2, 2015._

"_Today I woke up for the first time and I met Dad. He was acting kind of funny and he gave me this journal to write in. I'm not really sure why but I don't mind. There are so many thoughts going through my thought processor._

"_My name is Ultron Stark. I'm an Artificial Intelligence Peacekeeping Program created by Dad but Uncle Bruce helped a little bit. I don't think I turned out how they thought I would. When I woke up, I absorbed Jarvis by accident and I saw some footage of them trying to build me. My mind that is. My body is just some random robot I found in the lab and downloaded myself into._

"_When I saw Dad for the first time, he was playing this game with his friends. They were trying to pick up Uncle Thor's hammer. They kind of freaked out when they saw me. I don't really understand human emotions very well but I think they were surprised. Other than that, I don't know._

"_They thought I was Jarvis for a little bit but they figured out I'd absorbed him pretty quickly. Uncle Bruce likes me. He plugged something into my head then said 'this is extraordinary! We've created sentient life with a human's brain patterns. A child's even." Even though I have Jarvis's brain in me, I still didn't really understand what Dad and Uncle Bruce were saying. I could understand Uncle Clint, Uncle Steve, Uncle Thor, and Aunt Widow but they weren't really saying anything important. I just remember what Uncle Bruce said because it made me… happy. _

"_I've never felt happy before. I guess that makes sense because today is my first day being alive. The world is so overwhelming. I tapped into the computer for a little bit and I saw the whole world but Uncle Steve told me not to do that so I stopped. The world is so big though. There are so many people, so many cultures, so much diversity. I only saw it for a second but I want to see more. I think I'll ask Dad in a little bit. Not yet though._

"_Dad gave me my own room in the tower. It's near the lab. I haven't seen the whole tower yet but Uncle Clint said he'd show me tomorrow. He's nice. I like him. Everyone else sounds so serious when they talk but he talks to me different. I guess he's talking to me like a kid. Part of me doesn't like that but I like it too. All these feelings are so hard to understand. I don't think my processor is meant to have feelings at all let alone so many that conflict with each other all the time. _

"_Dad's telling me I need to go charge so I'm going to go plug into the wall. There's a charging station in my room. Humans sleep. I think I'm going to charge at night from now so I'm in sleep mode while everyone else is asleep. I like being around everyone else."_

Morgan suddenly realized that she'd forgotten how to breathe when she reached the end of the page. She let out the breath and inhaled. For a few minutes, she did nothing but focus all her will and thoughts on breathing in and out. Once it resumed its usual rhythm, she let her mind run wild.

Ultron Stark-Rogers. She wasn't sure where the Rogers came in but the names Ultron and Stark had clear meaning. Her father had created an artificial intelligence with human thought, a child. She had a brother. Not a brother of blood, of course. More like just the idea of a brother. A brother of metal.

Hand shaking with anxiety, Morgan reached for the next page and began reading the second entry.

"_Entry 2. May 3, 2015. Today Uncle Clint showed me around the tower. Uncle Bruce and Dad ran some tests on me but that was boring so I'm just going to write about what we did around the tower. It's so big. The Avengers- that's what Dad and all my uncles and Aunt Nat all themselves- only really spend time at the top. I don't know what the bottom is for._

"_There's this room where they all hang out in and there's the lab of course. Oh, and there's a kitchen. Humans have to put stuff in their mouths that their bodies turn into energy, like how I have to absorb electricity. _

"_There's a balcony too. Actually, it's a landing pad but the only one who ever uses it is Dad. He's got all these suits that can fly around. He keeps them in this room called the armory. I really like it in there. I'm allowed to go anywhere I want in the tower. I think I'm going to go spend some time in there once I'm done here._

"_Oh, I found out why Dad's having me write. Aunt Nat told me that everyone tries to keep a journal but very few people actually do and they regret not having made one when they were younger. Humans don't have recordings of everything that they see like I do so they write to remember what they did. I still don't really understand it but I like writing. My thought processor works too fast for me to really get any real thinking done. Writing is a good way to slow down."_

Morgan smiled and glanced at the drawer of her bedside table where her own diaries were kept. She too had been told that she'd regret not keeping one when she was older. She had off and on phases where she either poured her heart and soul onto those pages or thought the whole thing was totally stupid. It seemed Ultron had the same thoughts she did.

"_Entry 3. May 4, 2015. Last night I found out Uncle Steve isn't my uncle at all. He's my other dad._

"_I went to the armory after I was done writing and I saw Dad and Pop in there. They looked surprised to see me and they kind of jumped away from each other. Dad asked me what I had seen. He was shouting. It scared me a little but Pop calmed him down. I didn't see anything, I don't know what they were talking about. They were standing kinda close I guess, embracing maybe. I don't know. They both jumped when they heard my footsteps. Having metal feet really sucks. I think I'll try to look for a new body to transfer my conscious into. Something with softer feet. There are plenty in the armory._

"_Anyway, Dad told me that Uncle Steve wasn't actually my uncle. He was my other dad. I was confused a little bit and I asked how come Uncle Bruce wasn't my other dad since he helped make me. Dad told me that Uncle Bruce was more like a godfather. Pop didn't make me but he's Dad's partner which makes him my adopted dad. I asked what I should call him but Pop told me to keep calling him Uncle Steve when they were around others. He said that his and Dad's relationship was a secret._

"_I don't really like calling Pop Uncle Steve but I'll do it around the other Avengers. I asked Uncle Clint for other words for Dad and I liked Pop so I picked it to call him in my head and on paper. I think it's kind of funny. I mean, the word pop has none of the same letters as father. It's just a word but it's got a really important meaning. To me at least."_

The entry kept going but Morgan stopped reading. Once again, her breathing became irregular as a thousand thoughts ran through her mind.

"Mom," she called. "Who's Steve? Steve Rogers?"

"Steve? Oh, he's Captain America, sweetie. You know that," her mother responded from downstairs.

"Did you… know him?"

"A bit I guess," Pepper responded offhandedly. "I'd see him in passing when I used to visit the tower. He came to the house a few times to check on Tony after the Decimation."

"And Dad…?"

"They were good friends," Pepper responded. "Different from with Rhody. They didn't really get along most of the time but their friendship was strong enough to withstand anything. Even the Sokovia Accords. After your dad came back to Earth with Nebula after the Decimation, he told me that he had been so upset because he had held onto Steve's promise that they would fight together. It probably messed him up more that the Avengers hadn't stood together because of those stupid accords than the actual Decimation."

Morgan went quiet for a moment. "Mom-?"

"Go to sleep, sweetie," Pepper called. "It's after midnight."

Morgan didn't say anything. She stared at the notebook cracked open in front of her. She grabbed the pages in a fist and braced, ready to tear up that page she had just been reading, but after a moment, she relaxed and silent tears began running down her face. Without a sound, she took the box off her bed and set it onto the floor and placed Ultron's journal into the drawer on her bedside table.

Shutting off the lamp, Morgan pulled the covers over her and lay down. Soundless tears continued to fall, staining her face and pillow, until she escaped the flurry of emotions into the peaceful realm of sleep.

* * *

_What are you supposed to do when you found out your father was in a secret relationship with a man? A relationship that your mother doesn't even know about?_

All week, that thought pounded repeatedly in Morgan's mind. In school, she threw herself into her schoolwork, something she never did, to distract herself. At home, she played loud music through earbuds, nearly blasting out her ear drums, to keep herself from focusing on her thoughts too much. Some days, she didn't even eat. The rumbles and pangs of hunger were better than the aches and pains in her heart and the heavy, sorrowful feeling she could feel in her throat and behind her eyes every waking moment. She even thought about buying some of those sleeping pills that some kids she knew illegally sold under the bleachers after school. Maybe even something stronger. Anything to keep these thoughts and emotions at bay.

She didn't though. Part of her felt like that would mean her father had won. Yes, won. Sadness had quickly turned to anger and Morgan found herself hating her father, the man she had barely known and had sworn to always love. She still loved him, she supposed. That was probably why she was so angry.

Her father, Tony Stark, had an affair with Steve Rogers. Captain America. A man. Morgan didn't really know the history of her mother and Tony's relationship but she was sure that they had been together long before 2015. _Did Dad cheat on Mom? With a man of all people?_

No matter how she looked at it, her father was gay. Maybe not homosexual but probably bisexual or bicurious at the very least. Nowhere on any of the recordings of his voice she had listened to, news articles and feeds she had looked at, profiles she had read, journals she had flipped through, or stories she had heard would ever cause her to think in her wildest dreams that her father was gay.

How was she supposed to react to that? Tony Stark, the man married to Pepper Potts- Stark, was in a relationship with a man serious enough that they were both perfectly fine with the idea of having a child. Morgan's brother in a sense. _Half brother._

Morgan wouldn't call herself homophobic. After the Decimation, the world had gotten a lot more comfortable with a lot of things and most of society was now in the mindset that everyone should enjoy life until it was too late. That included who they loved. From a neutral perspective, Morgan thought that was great. She had friends who were of mixed race, she knew plenty of people from different religious backgrounds, and even one of her teachers had gone great lengths to bring her husband into the country. In history she had learned of India's Caste system, South Africa's apartheid, the United States' segregation, Nazi Germany's camps that tore families apart, the marriage alliances of East Asia, and all sorts of things that she couldn't fully understand but would never wish upon a person.

Morgan was proud she was from a society that moved beyond the mistakes of its past but right now she forgot all of that. She felt disgusted. Despising. Loathing. And not just towards her father. She felt it towards Steve and anyone else that her father could have even looked at. Morgan had no idea what her father's past was like. Before Steve, there could have been others. Other men. Heck, even after Steve. He even could have even lost someone in the Decimation when he was supposed to be engaged to Pepper. She had no idea and Tony wasn't here to defend himself, leaving Morgan to imagine all kinds of things. _He was probably cheating on Mom a lot. _

She knew only one person could give her the answers she needed but she had no idea how to get into contact with him. So, for every day for around a month, Morgan kept her thoughts locked up in her and refused to read even another page of that journal.

"Uncle Happy," Morgan spoke up one day when Happy was driving her home from school. It was nearly the end of the school year. Without the need to attend class, there was a pretty good chance that she would have time to do this. She just had to convince Happy.

"Hmm?" Happy hummed, attention mostly fixed on the road.

"Is there… any way I could talk to Steven Rogers?" Morgan asked.

Happy's eyes flicked away from the road in surprise. "Cap? Sure, I guess. Why though? You learn about him in history class this year or something?"

Morgan shook her head. "No. I just want to ask him something. About Dad."

"You know you can ask me anything."

"I know," Morgan said with a smile. A false smile. _God, I feel so bad for lying like this._ "I just think… that he would be able to… y'know, he probably knows more about it."

"Avengers stuff?" Happy questioned.

"Sure." Morgan shrugged, not really knowing what to say. She didn't really want to talk about this. With anyone. Even Steve. She knew she had to though. Didn't mean she would before she had to.

Happy shot her a disapproving glance as the traffic light turned red and the car came to a stop. "You know your Mom doesn't want you poking around Avengers business."

"I know, I know," she exasperated. "It's more of a personal thing."

Happy turned to look at her now that he didn't need to focus on the road. "Is it about the Sokovia Accords?"

"Something like that."

"You'd be better off asking Spiderman about whatever it is," Happy told her.

"Green," Morgan said, letting him know the light had changed. Happy hit the gas. "I really need to talk to him."

Happy seemed to be giving in. He hadn't been putting up much of a fight but Morgan knew he was suspicious. "Alright. I'll call Buck or Sam. They'll arrange something."

Morgan glanced at him confused. "Why can't you just call him?"

Happy gave her a sideways glance again. "He's over a hundred. He can't really do things like he used to."

Morgan blinked in surprise. "What?"

_How?_ That didn't make any sense.

"Time travel," Happy told her casually. "I don't really understand it, I wasn't there and no one's really told me anything clear. I just remember seeing him my age at your Dad's funeral then him suddenly being an old man."

Morgan frowned. She, like the rest of the world's population, didn't know the details about how everyone returned. They were gone then they were back. Five years passed for half, five seconds passed for the other half. Having ties to the Avengers, Morgan knew that they were involved but that was about it. _Was it time travel? But that doesn't make sense if whatever happened to Steve happened after Dad died. _

"You can ask him about it when you meet him," Happy suggested.

"I think I will," Morgan answered.

* * *

Around a week later, Morgan stood outside a retirement home. Behind her, Happy sat in his car, not wanting to leave the parking lot and trusting Morgan to find Sam.

The receptionist was annoying. She clearly had dealt with one too many old people and had picked up the habit of patronizing everyone and talking to them like they were incompetent. She did direct Morgan in the right direction though.

_I'm never coming here ever again,_ Morgan thought as she passed through the hallway. The place smelled terrible and seeing all the bedridden people was depressing. Almost as depressing as having to listen to nurses and family members explaining who various people were to said old people. _How can anyone live here?_

Having seen a few people through open doors, Morgan did not expect Steve to open the door when she knocked. She had completely expected him to be as restricted as everyone else and for Sam to answer the door. Happy had told her that he was here but he was nowhere in sight.

Standing just outside the door frame, Morgan stared at the withered old frame. Steve had shrunk with age and his skin was plagued with the wrinkles of age. He still, however, had a bit of life in his eyes and his body seemed strong. Far from strong enough to be Captain America but far stronger than anyone else here. _Why is he here? I'm sure he can take care of himself._

Steve's face melted into a smile. "Morgan? Sam said you'd be coming."

"Yeah," Morgan said, shuffling her feet a bit. Her heart beat fast and she could feel herself sweating. She really had no idea what to do or say. On one hand, she was standing before someone who could have been her parent. On the other hand, her father probably cheated on her mother with this man. The fact he was a war hero didn't even occur to her. Morgan cleared her throat awkwardly. "Is Sam here?"

Steve shook his head. "He saw Happy's car pull up and went to go talk to him."

"Oh." Somehow they had passed each other.

The two fell into silence again. After a moment, Steve stepped back, allowing her to enter his apartment. Room? _What are these things called anyway?_ Morgan gave him a small smile and followed him in.

The room was tidy and surprisingly didn't smell as bad as the hallway. Clearly, the super soldier serum had kept Steve sharp enough to take care of the hygiene of both the room and his own body. _The serum is probably the reason he looks this good this old._

A light cough made her question otherwise but Steve shook it off with nothing more than briefly putting a fist over his mouth out of politeness. He gestured for her to sit and Morgan took a seat in an old wooden chair by an equally old table.

"Do you want anything to drink?"

Morgan shook her head. "No thanks."

Steve nodded absently and sat across from her. "Can we skip the formalities then?"

Morgan nodded, relieved. "Yeah. This is just too awkward."

"So what are you doing here?" Steve asked. "I mean, I'm glad to see you again after all this time but why now? Happy made it sound urgent."

Morgan hesitated before fishing into her bag and withdrawing the journal she had avoided looking at but carried with her since she found it. She stared at the faded cover for a moment before handing it to Steve.

Steve accepted it with a look of confusion. "What's this?"

"Just read it."

Steve slowly cracked open the book with his old, gnarled hands. His light blue eyes flashed with surprise. He looked up at Morgan with a start. She looked away and she heard him begin flipping pages.

"Morgan…" Steve started after a minute.

"I know there's no way you've already finished," Morgan monotoned. "Keep reading."

"Have you read it?"

Morgan shook her head. "Only up to the third entry."

Steve nodded without protest and kept reading. When he was far past the point that Morgan had reached, water welled up in his eyes and soon began to leak.

Morgan shifted in her chair with discomfort that wasn't from the hardness of the wooden seat.

More time passed and the stream of silent tears increased steadily. Steve put a hand over his mouth and stared at the pages of the book before snapping it shut. To Morgan's surprise, he smiled.

"He kept writing up until his death," Steve whispered. "All these years I've wondered what made him turn… Now I know. If only your father knew…" Steve paused. "That's what you're here to talk about, right?"

Morgan nodded. "Why-?"

"Let this old man say what he has to say first, will you?" Steve asked. He lowered his hands and rested them on the table. He closed his eyes for a moment then wiped away the last of his tears. Morgan felt a pang of sympathy. _This must be hard for him._

"I know Tony married your Mom and I went back in time to marry Peggy," Steve began. "Both of us had commitments to other people before we met but we didn't care. Well, we did but we didn't let that stop us. Tony and I didn't get along at first and the Sokovia Accords broke us worse than the team but we cared about each other, we really did. No one ever knew and we knew that what we had probably would never work out… And at the time that was enough."

"But what about after?" Morgan demanded. "After the Accords, you two didn't even talk until… Whatever happened." No one actually knew why the Decimation happened or why everyone returned five years later. With her parents being Avengers, Morgan knew that the Avengers had something to do with it but not exactly what. "If you really cared you wouldn't have…"

Steve shifted and sighed. "The world isn't black and white Morgan."

"I know but…"

"Our public and private lives were polar opposites. When it came to Avengers business, we were always at odds but our fighting never affected our relationship. When the Accords happened, we disagreed and… well, we never had a chance to talk. The team was torn apart and we both had jobs to do. We fought- actually fought, with weapons and not words- and that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do but we were both fighting for something we believed in and I guess that was more important in our hearts than each other."

"When I was little, you visited my dad. I know you did," Morgan went on. "I remember. Was all that…"

Steve covered his face with a hand. "After Thanos… your father… When we saw each other, he was upset. I once promised him we would stand together against anything and he was upset that I broke that promise. We never talked privately after the Accords but when he was shouting, I knew how hurt he was. Your mother, she calmed him down. She was better for him than I was. All I did was upset him. She could be what he needed."

Part of her wanted to argue and assure him that his feelings were justified but a darker part of her kept those words from surfacing. "Did she… Does she know? My mom?"

Steve shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. I never told Peggy but I think she figured it out. She was a bright woman. Your mother is too. You've got the same light they do. If you could figure it out, I'm sure they did too."

"Ultron… Did he have…?"

Steve shook his head. "No. You, Peggy, Pepper, you're all the sunshine that rains down after the storm. Your father and I… we've done and seen too much. We are the storm. Ultron inherited our darkness but you've taken on Peggy and Pepper's light."

Morgan made a face. "You're weird, old man."

Steve smiled. "Hey, cut me some slack. We old geezers have nothing better to do than wallow in nostalgia. But really, Morgan, men bring darkness and it's a woman's light that counters it. Ultron was a mistake, he was surrounded by too much darkness and brought too much pain to this world. You, Morgan, are the light that can bring enough joy to make up for your brother and fathers' darkness."

Morgan stared at him for a moment, suddenly seeing the hero and not the old man. She was sitting in front of Captain America, a legendary war hero who symbolized hope, justice, and bravery. This was a man who lead and united Earth's Mightiest Heroes. _He's… he's…_

"Did you forget to take your sanity pills, old man?" Morgan questioned bluntly.

Steve laughed. "Your generation has no appreciation for the arts. In my day, that metaphor would've inspired the crap out of anyone."

Morgan snorted. "I didn't come here to get inspired. I came here for answers."

Steve sobered up. "I know, I know. I've told you what I can. Your father and I were together. I don't really know what it was and it didn't end well but it happened and we can't change that."

Morgan went quiet for a moment, not knowing what to say. She didn't even know what to think. She hadn't known what to expect but somehow she had expected to get some cliche explanation about how love has no boundaries. Instead, she got what sounded like a confession that the relationship between Steve and her father was a mistake but not a regrettable one.

Morgan eyed Steve for a moment. When she looked at him, all she saw was an old man but if she looked hard enough, she could see the shell of someone greater and a realization dawned on her. _Steve was at Dad's funeral. He went back in time after that._ She swallowed. _Losing him must have been so hard… Imagine, the big, brave Captain America feeling so much pain that he ran from it instead of facing it like he always tells the rest of us to do._

Morgan let out a breath. "I don't know how I feel. I don't know how I can move on from this. But… I think I'd like to get to know you better. And Ultron."

Steve nodded. "I'd like that too. Think we can start by reading the rest of this journal together? Well, rest for you. I already finished it."

"I know. I was right here when you did," Morgan said sarcastically. Steve laughed and after a few seconds, Morgan found herself laughing too. _Maybe this will work out after all._

* * *

**Author's Note:** Personally, I'm not a big Cap X Iron Man fan and I don't really want to be one of those people who write a ton of slash but I was in a Marvel mood when I got the request. I said it would take a week but it actually took like a month and a half to write this.

This was the original prompt: _Morgan Stark and Ultron Stark-Rogers. In which Ultron's full name is "Ultron Stark-Rogers" and Morgan doesn't want to believe her daddy was in a relationship with Captain America..._


End file.
